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| You can add our small corner of southern Illinois to that list, lots of unplanted fields locally.
I looked at the numbers yesterday and none of them are good. None of the options are good and none are profitable, but I am going to plant if I can by the 4th of July. PP bean payments are low for me. They would cover the cash rent and not a whole lot more. I have 3 farms unplanted. 2 of these are the only ground I farm in an adjacent county. If these are not planted that ground will go from enterprise units to basic or optional units and the premium will go up a lot.
I am most concerned about how to keep these fields from becoming a weed patch if left unplanted and the costs associated with preventing that. Mowing a couple of times would be relatively cheap, but weeds would definitely go to seed. Clean tilling a few times and then planting wheat or an early fall cover crop is an option but the topsoil would be wide open to erosion all summer long. Trying to keep them clean all summer with chemicals would not be cheap and may or may not be effective. Planting a cover crop as soon as possible would probably be the best bet, but there would be costs associated with that too.
Due to the reasons listed above we will plant the beans if possible and will reevaluate in a couple of weeks if forced to. Hang in there everybody, this too shall pass.
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to plant or not to plant
